Builder’s remedy window closes in Pasadena

The City of Pasadena has regained state compliance on its housing element, meaning the city is no longer subject to certain penalties — including the controversial builder’s remedy provision. 

The California Department of Housing and Community Development granted Pasadena the key approval earlier this month after it missed an initial deadline nearly a year and a half ago.  

The agency’s sign-off ends a tenuous period for the wealthy L.A. County city, which has recently been at the forefront of California’s battle over housing laws and local control related to a different law. Last year, after the enactment of the signature zoning law SB 9, Pasadena and its elected officials fought for months against the California attorney general over the city’s intended exemptions. With that fight, eventually the city made minor language adjustments and both sides claimed victory. 

“The attorney general simply got it wrong,” Pasadena mayor Victor Gordo said at the time. 

But more recently it’s the builder’s remedy, the previously obscure provision that under certain circumstances allows developers to bypass local zoning, that has sparked the state’s biggest development debate.  

The provision kicks in only when a local jurisdiction is out of state compliance on its housing element, the document that acts as a blueprint for every California jurisdiction’s housing plan. Builder’s remedy grants developers by-right approval as long as projects have at least a 20 percent affordable component. The provision means that developers don’t have to conform to local zoning, opening the door to larger, potentially controversial projects.  

Pasadena, along with most of Southern California, faced an initial deadline of Oct.15, 2021 to reach state compliance on its latest update of the element. But the City of Roses — along with dozens of other L.A. County cities — failed to meet that deadline. 

Pasadena, which under the state’s allocation had to plan for nearly 9,500 new homes over the next eight years, also initially balked at the state’s determination, with city officials hinting at possible lawsuits. 

“At this moment, I wouldn’t rule out anything,” Gordo told a local newspaper in January 2021. “The state has continued its overreach, imposing unrealistic and unfunded mandates.”  

But Pasadena eventually came up with compliant plans. The city filed its most recent draft revision in January, and the document was reviewed by HCD on March 10, according to a state database. 

The approval means that the long window developers had to file builder’s remedy projects also closes immediately — but not before the city received at least one application from developer Mohamad Pournamdari, who filed a preliminary application in October for a six-story, 100-unit apartment building at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Canada Avenue, north of the city’s downtown. 

“They’re just kind of trying to delay it,” said one member of the development team. “They’re obviously not eager to move forward with it.” 

But the builder’s remedy provision means that the approvals are actually out of Pasadena’s hands. A separate state law clarifies that code rules are locked in place when a developer files a preliminary application, so the city’s recent housing element approval is irrelevant to existing applications.

An HCD representative did not respond to questions about the recent approval. Pasadena officials could not be reached for comment.

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